CtiTV, commission get flak for errors in news shows

Fri, Apr 12, 2013 - Page 3

After CtiTV on Monday displayed a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II while reporting on the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the channel faced yet more criticism later in the week over allegedly allowing guest pundits on one of its shows to comment on unverified facts.

In the lastest issue of Next Magazine on Wednesday, an independent reporter, Yang Chien-hao (楊虔豪), was quoted as having filed a report with the National Communications Commission over a recently aired episode of the show News Tornado (新聞龍捲風).

One of the show’s guests, Chiang Chung-po (江中博), extensively talked about the alleged disappearance of one entire train of cars in the Moscow subway in 1975.

Yang said the commission’s failure to discipline CtiTV for its multiple transgressions and oversight of media ethics was purposeful, and implied that the commission was siding with CtiTV.

The show has long been controversial in its variety-show approach toward hard news content, including incidents such as show host Tai Li-kang (戴立綱) and guest Peng Hua-kan (彭華幹) bringing a toilet on set to demonstrate how former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) may have disposed of bribe money in an alleged corruption scandal, and simulating how suspects may have disposed of the corpses of Chang Tsui-ping (張翠萍) and Chen Chin-fu (陳進福) in a recent double murder.

In response to Yang’s criticism, the commission’s communication content department director Jason Ho (何吉森) said Yang’s complaint coincided with four other complaints, adding that the commission has already asked CtiTV to review its behavior.

“We’ve asked the channel to submit a full report to its ethics department for a review,” Ho said, adding that “we are not purposefully overlooking CtiTV’s transgressions.”